Chapter Text
People’s stares always made Sigma nervous, and today was no exception. Not that he suffered from anxiety, or anything. Anybody in their right mind would be nervous transferring to a new class in the middle of the school year. The fact that making a good impression was not just necessary, but crucial didn’t help, though, so the tension he felt was even higher. It was unavoidable, though, as without managing this he couldn’t even begin to wish for a peaceful school life.
He got lucky. For the first minutes of the school day, nothing attracted unwanted attention or put him in an awkward situation. He still had to introduce himself in front of the class, though, which opened a ton of opportunities for anything and everything to go wrong. The introduction was unavoidable and necessary, though, so the only thing left was to do his best.
The teacher was making a small speech, and Sigma was beginning to feel like the whole thing, although short in reality, was stretching into an eternity. All the while he stood there in front of the whole class trying not to show how stressed he is. If he were to show that, he’d look like there was a gun pressed to his back, stripping him of the ability to speak as if by magic, and that absolutely wasn’t something he wanted to show.
The teacher was still talking, and Sigma finally mustered the courage to look around the classroom. It seemed that most of the students weren’t even interested in him. They were killing time, waiting to return to their usual school day. Some were pretending to listen, others were busy with something or, thinking nobody would notice, having a snack. Still, he didn’t manage to not get any excess attention. For some reason, there were three pairs of eyes staring at him, absolutely unapologetically and unabashedly.
Sigma turned his attention to those three, trying not to make it obvious he was looking at them specifically. Even a quick look was enough to have a first impression, though, and it wasn’t a positive one. He could immediately feel these three were a ton of trouble.
The first to attract his attention was the guy whose desk was the closest to the window. He wasn’t looking at Sigma with malice or anything, but even just the way he looked screamed that nothing good could come out of associating with him. With his light-colored messy hair, he looked as if he didn’t even bother to make himself look proper after getting out of bed. A medical eye-patch was covering his right eye, and the left, an unusual yellow hue, was crossed over by a dangerous looking thin vertical scar. And when Sigma met his gaze by accident, a white-toothed grin split the other’s face, showing teeth. There was no malice behind it or anything, but Sigma wouldn’t call it all that friendly either. He rushed to turn his eyes away as quickly as possible.
Next was a different guy, one with dark slightly curly hair, whose brown eyes glinted with real mockery. His grin only stirred distrust in Sigma, and nothing else. Even more so, when this dark-haired guy noticed Sigma looking, he whispered something to his neighbor with the most dodgy face possible and smiled deviously, and Sigma firmly decided not to come near him without a really good reason to.
The last one was the neighbor of that suspicious curly haired guy. He was thin and sickly looking, with longish jet-black hair, and with his dark eyes he fixed Sigma with the heaviest stare imaginable. Rays of sunlight coming through the slightly opened window didn’t reach him, and the dark circles under his eyes seemed monstrous. He responded to his neighbor’s joke with a very short answer, without any enthusiasm.
The brown eyed guy smirked again at that.
Sigma decided not to look at these three at all, as to not make himself even more nervous.
The teacher finally finished speaking and turned to Sigma himself.
“Go on, introduce yourself,” he smiled, obviously trying to help the new student feel more confident.
“Of course…” Sigma agreed as he turned around to the blackboard and picked up a piece of chalk.
The same stares were now boring into his back, but he tried to just ignore that. Even though he was beginning to feel as though this whole thing was one of those TV programs on nature, and he’s the antelope, being watched by a bunch of predators.
Keeping his hands busy helped a lot, though.
Finally, there was a name neatly written in chalk on the blackboard. And it read “Sigma.” An unusual but, in a way, fortunate name. Nobody managed to come up with an insulting variant of it yet, and so, Sigma’s life went without this kind of nuisance up to this point.
The only thing left now was to actually introduce himself. Sigma took a deep breath, trying to collect himself.
“Call me Sigma. I hope we will get along,” he smiled.
There was almost no interest towards him still, which, he decided, was for the best. It’s not negative attention, after all…
Those three were still staring at him, though, and he couldn’t relax.
“Good, I hope so too!” the teacher smiled, seemingly happy with how the whole thing went.
“Right…” he looked around the class, searching for a free desk to put Sigma at. There weren’t many, as the class was almost full.
Sigma realized one of the free seats was right near that strange light-haired guy, and he felt his heart skip a beat. The way this person looked raised too many questions, and Sigma didn’t want to know the answers.
To his massive relief, the teacher pointed him in the opposite direction. The seat was near some other guy in glasses, a completely normal looking person compared to those three. So normal, in fact, that his appearance could be called bland. And on the way there, Sigma let out a light sigh, finally relaxing his shoulders.
It seemed that, despite everything, his first day started without any trouble, and he was incredibly thankful to any known and unknown gods that heard him and let him have this.
***
Nothing out of the ordinary happened during class. Every teacher wanted to get to know Sigma at first, either out of genuine curiosity or just to be polite, but afterwards lessons carried on completely as normal. It even started to feel like he’s been in this class forever and now is no more noticeable to everybody than one of the desks or the chairs.
It was kind of boring, but Sigma was genuinely glad his first day was this uneventful. This way, it was easier to adjust, than if he got all the attention new students usually get.
Finally, the bell rang, signaling the end of the last class. Sigma got up from his desk and picked up his bag. During the excursion back before the admission, the school’s literature club caught his attention, and now he was planning on joining.
The hallway was full of people. Some were chatting with friends, others hurried to get out of the school building. He could understand that. The weather was very pleasant. The warm sun shone through the windows, illuminating everything, and you could see the golden tree crowns just outside.
Sigma walked at an easy pace, giving way to some students, rushing somewhere with bright laughter and others, who were carrying a big wall newspaper.
The school was full of life, and Sigma felt that if everything continued like this, he would be able to become a part of it easily. And then, maybe, he’d even make some friends.
Now that would be nice…
He stopped at a crossroad between two hallways, realizing he didn’t know where to go next. He didn’t memorize the way to the literature club during the excursion, and now went mostly by hunch, rather than actually knowing where he was going. The only thing he knew for sure was that he was on the right floor.
Sigma nervously clutched the strap of his bag, looking down one of the hallways with doubt. It didn’t look familiar, but the other one didn’t either. Of course, he won’t get lost inside the school building, but wandering around for God knows how long searching for a club that could be very near wasn’t what he’d choose if he had a choice.
Luckily, some girl was walking by. It took Sigma a second, but he recognized one of his classmates in her.
“Excuse me! Could you please tell me where the literature club is?”
The girl stopped, obviously puzzled by his question.
“Why do you ask?” she tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear, studying him.
Almost immediately her gaze caught on the two-toned hair, and in a second or two she seemed to recognize him.
Sigma smiled awkwardly. He managed to avoid attention so well, no one even remembered him. It seems he shouldn’t have worried, after all…
“I just transferred, and today’s my first day.”
The girl nodded impatiently, interrupting his explanation.
“Yeah, I know,” she waved him away dismissively, “I’m asking, why do you wanna know.”
“I want to join the club,” he explained. It was probably better he didn’t try and decipher the hidden meaning behind the whole thing.
The surprised expression on the girl’s face gave way to an almost shocked one. She looked Sigma over with disbelief, as if she had doubts about him being real. Sigma shifted uncomfortably, twisting the strap of his bag in his fingers.
The silence was stretching for too long once again, and it was starting to get on his nerves. Maybe, it would’ve been better if he just looked for the place himself, instead of seeking help?…makes
He was going to apologize for bothering the girl at all and leave, but she broke the silence first. She still looked almost weirded out, but gave him the directions.
Kind of makes you think, what could be up with that club…
Sigma watched the girl walk away and went on his way.
It turned out he was pretty close. The door to the needed classroom was just around the corner. Sigma knocked on the door and, not awaiting an answer, poked his head inside.
And froze just like that, struck by what he saw.
First, inside there were specifically those three guys, who stared at him all the way through his introduction in the morning. That fact alone made his stomach leap. And second, no one would expect to see what was before his eyes right now in a classroom.
“…alright, then I’m taking it off!” the blond guy chirped cheerily, as he got up from the chair he was sitting on backwards and picked up the hem of his already messy looking shirt. He looked like he was going to pull it over his head and take it off completely.
Sigma immediately took half a step back, slamming the door in front of himself. There were muffled voices on the other side, some chatter, but he was just staring at the door with wide eyes, trying to comprehend what on earth he just witnessed.
Now the girl’s reaction to his question is way more understandable. He really shouldn’t have come here. To this God knows what of a club. The best thing right now would be to just turn around and leave, before anyone notices him.
However, he didn’t manage to move even an inch before the door was thrown wide open by someone from the other side. And he had to basically bump noses with them.
“Noses” was an overstatement, though… This guy was about five centimeters taller than him!
“Hey, wait! You’re the new guy, aren’t you?!” the cheery voice rang, and Sigma finally looked up to meet its owner’s eyes.
The blond guy. It was the blond guy.
At the very least he was fully clothed, to Sigma’s relief. Though he looked even more of a mess than before.